Holidays

A visit in, and getting things done

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

This morning, I woke to find a message from my older daughter. She had been up all night, not feeling well at all. Her sister stayed up with her to be available to help out.

Not being in a position to cook for herself, she sent me some funds and a request. After talking to her about it, I added a Walmart trip to my list of places to go today.

The first order of business, was to load up the truck with garbage and recycling for the dump. My younger daughter helped me, but she had been up for more than 24 hours, so she was pretty dead on her feet! She headed to bed shortly after the truck was loaded.

Silly me, I headed out right away, forgetting that the dump is not on summer hours. They open at 10am now, not 9am. Thankfully, I remember that before I was a mile away, so I turned around and headed home. It worked out for the better, since I had time to have a real breakfast before going.

The dump was surprisingly busy today. Driving up to the pit, I found a row of four trucks, two with trailers, unloading. I rarely see more than two vehicles at once.

When I checked in with the attendant and told him I had household garbage and recycling, he said I hoped I had only glass! They have one recycling bin for glass, and the rest for general recycling. Six big bins, and they were all full. The recycling gets taken to the city for processing, and it hadn’t been done yet. After I was done unloading into the pit, I found the least over filled bin. Normally, as per instructions on signs, recycling would be removed from any bags; there’s even a separate blue bin, the size of a large trash bin, just for the bags. I didn’t do that today, and just set all the bags on top. When I saw the attendant going by, I made sure to tell him I was leaving them in the bags, so things wouldn’t get blown away. He appreciated that!

Once done, I headed home long enough to change out of my grubbies, then headed out.

On the way to the truck, I spotted this adorableness.

I’ve turned off the heat lamps in the sun room again, since it stays warmer overnight, but for the next couple of days, I’m leaving the heat lamp on in here. When things warm up again, I’ll shut it off during the day and turn it back on at night.

The cats were really appreciating the heat lamp!

It’s been a while since I’ve been to anywhere I could pick up a card, so I stopped at a small department store to get a Mother’s Day card and signed it before going to the TCU to visit my mother. I stopped at the nursing station first, to ask how she’s been.

The woman that had spoke to us before to talk about my mother wanting to see a doctor, and about her medications, was there. She told me that, after our little meeting, my mother had gone to the nursing station to watch her prepare my mom’s supper time medications – and was already telling her, they were the wrong medications.

They aren’t.

In the end, it comes down to my mother simply refusing to believe the nurses know what they are doing, and believing that they are deliberately messing up her medications, because she’s old and they want old people to die.

*sigh*

The staff tell her what the different pills are, every time they give them to her, explaining which is which and what they are for. She apparently just looks at them and nods her head, most times, and that’s about it. Yet I know she’s been writing notes on a pad she keeps in the drawer under her bedside table, of what she’s getting and when, writing down the descriptions of each pill and making little doodles of them, later on.

As we were talking, another nurse came behind the counter and settled in. Hearing us, she said, “Oh, we’re talking about [my mother].”

“Yes.”

“Ah…”

All I could do was shake my head. It’s not the first time I’ve had that response about my mother! She did clarify that this was a good “ah”. She was my mother’s nurse, this morning.

As we were talking, I brought up about my mother calling me, demanding I take her over to the clinic down the hall, so she could make an appointment with a doctor there. I had told her, I already asked them about it. They won’t do it. Which the nurses both confirmed with me. I told them, I had repeated this several times, until my mother hung up on me – and that’s the last time I have talked to her!

They wished me well on the visit. 😄

After getting updated on things, I went to my mother’s room to see if she was there. She wasn’t, so I headed to the common room. There were other people visiting with another resident in some armchairs by the door. My mother was in her favourite spot; an armchair right in a corner, between two large windows. Snoozing!

She woke right away, though, as I grabbed a chair and settled in beside her. I gave her the card, which she asked me to take out and read to her.

There wasn’t much to talk about, really. My brother had called her yesterday, as he and his wife were going to spend Mother’s Day weekend with their grandsons, in another province. The TCO recreation person had gotten permission from us to take her out for a Mother’s Day meal at a nearby restaurant, which is fully accessible. There were enough ladies to do this with, so they were splitting it between two days. I didn’t know which day my mother was going to be going, and I asked her about it. She said she didn’t go, because she hadn’t been feeling well. In the end, it worked out, because my sister visited that day.

She then asked me what I was planning for Mother’s Day and I ended up telling her about the all-terrain walker my husband got for me, which should arrive soon. Something that can handle being used around our yard as I work, and to keep hand in case I have another fall, like I did last year, where my daughter brought my husband’s walker for me to use to get back to the house. I even mentioned to her that I have my appointment at the sports injury clinic in the city on Monday. That got my mother talking about how my brother and I should really get my sister to be more involved in taking care of my mother, because I have so much to deal with, even though my sister doesn’t understand my mother’s medications like we do. I told her, it makes more sense for me to be the one, because I am the most available, and live the closest.

After a while, my mother brought up about wanting to see a “real” doctor at the clinic down the hall. There are three doctors that some in from the city, she says. Women doctors. She should see them. I tried to explain, again, that the clinic won’t do that. She is under a doctor’s supervision where she is, and there are nurses to take care of her. Nurses that play doctor, she told me. With some of them, she doesn’t believe they are nurses at all. One, because he’s male, and men can’t be nurses, in her mind. She had the same attitude about the male home care workers.

Before she could go off on another tangent, she then told me about the nurses messing up with her medications and not giving her what she’s supposed to, at the right times. She described an incident she says happened more than once that made absolutely no sense to me. Partly because she said she was supposed to have her blood pressure medication at that time, which I knew she didn’t. She got that one earlier in the day. She insisted, and then told me about how this person had given her her Tylenol, but not her other medications. When my mother brought it up, she claimed the person said she got was she was supposed to, but then took a pill out of a blister pack and gave it to her. My mother said she took it.

None of this made sense to me.

In the end, it was a short visit. My mother got her lunch while I was there. A chicken burger, with lettuce and tomato, cut in half, potato salad, canned peaches, tomato juice, milk and the hot water she requests in place of tea. She ate only half her burger, the potato salad, her peaches, had a few sips of tomato juice, but mostly drank the warm water. She offered me the other half of her burger, because she didn’t want it to go to waste. She said she doesn’t have as much appetite anymore. Overall, she seemed pretty down, tired and depressed. She did add that she looks forward to when it’s warmer, so maybe one of her children will take her out to that restaurant for dinner. Considering it was cloudy and trying to rain, I can understand that. Overcast and rainy weather always leaves me feeling drained and tired, too. The only time she showed any sort of energy was when the group of people across the room suddenly started to laugh. My mother glared at them, her eyes filled with absolute rage. That is something she complains about constantly, every time she’s been in the hospital over the years, and now that she’s in the TCU. Other people laughing. She has even berated people in restaurants for laughing. She complains about the noise and how disruptive it is, but I’ve come to realize, it’s not really the noise. She just hates other people showing happiness. Often times, she also believes that they are laughing at her, specifically. I think part of the problem is that she can’t conceive of other people being happy, because she, herself, never is. When – if – she laughs, it’s never out of happiness. It’s usually to mock people, or to try and manipulate them. I honestly can’t remember my mother ever laughing out of happiness, in all my life. I’m sure she had at some point, but I was probably too young to remember it.

My mother’s mind must be a terrible place to be in.

There was very little to talk about, so I helped her put aside the bedside table with the food tray so she could get up, and walked her to her room before heading out.

From there, I drove to the nearer city to do my Walmart run. Since it shares the parking lot, I swung by the Dollarama first, to see if there was anything to pick up. The gardening supplies are being stocked, and they have some really good stakes and plant supports and much better prices. They didn’t have much for those, this time, but I did end up getting a sprinkler hose. Something I can set up under a covered garden bed, so I can water without having to take the cover off completely. I do have a couple of soaker hoses, but they release water so slowly, it takes forever to water a bed. It’s just a cheap one, dollar store hose, so I don’t expect it to last very long, but it’ll last long enough that I can decide on whether it’s worth getting more. At some point, when the budget allows, we’ll probably get a drip irrigation system. Not until we trench a hose from the house and set up a replacement garden tap.

That done, I headed to the Walmart. I had a small list of my own, as well as stuff my daughter requested, and it didn’t take very long. I kept feeling like I was forgetting something, but had no idea what. It didn’t help that this location is still in the process of being renovated, and everything has been moved. It was also really busy, not just with customers, but with pallets, trollies, pallet jacks and more, blocking the aisles.

I remembered what I was forgetting, just now. I don’t even know where the section is, anymore. I was going to pick up water soluble fertilizer to add to the water for the earliest transplants. They’re getting big enough to need it. It’s will probably be at least 4 more weeks before any of them can be transplanted outside, unless I’m able to cover the beds with plastic.

That done, I headed home, though I did have to stop for gas along the way. Gas prices are still $1.889/L

After everything was unloaded and put away, I updated my siblings, then called the TCU. The woman I spoke to before visiting my mother answer the phone, which made things easier. I explained, as best I could, what my mother had told me. It didn’t make sense to her, either.

What I now know, however, is that the Tylenol they get comes sealed in blister packs. The medication my mother gets before bed, which is a blood thinner, not a blood pressure pill, comes in a paper packet that is torn open. My mother had said the nurse had waited and watched her take the Tylenol, but it had to have been her blood thinner – yet she’s never said anything about a pill being taken out of a paper packet.

I was assured that, when my mother is given her medications, each one is shown to her and explained. When talking to me about it later, it’s clear my mother doesn’t believe them. She’s had it explained to her, many times, that even though the pills might look a little different – or a lot different, as is the case with her eye vitamin – they still have the same medication and dose in them. My mother keeps saying, they are the wrong pills. Especially with that eye vitamin. Before, she had been getting the gel version, which is large and almost black in colour. Now, it’s a round white tablet.

I explained that this has been an issue in the past, when the pharmacy changed suppliers for one of her meds. It looked every so slightly different in size and tint. My mother decided that the pharmacist had changed her prescription and was giving her something else. My siblings and I explained it to her. The pharmacist explained it to her. The doctor explained it to her. She never accepted that. I told her about my mother having to have a lock box for her meds, and that I’d found a pill organizer with probably 50 pills in it that she’d taken out of her bubble packs, long before she got the lock box.

I don’t think the problem is that my mother isn’t able understand that the same medication can come indifferent forms. I think it’s more that she refuses to accept that as a possibility. She would rather believe people are incompetent, or deliberately messing with her medications.

*sigh*

Still, the nurse said she would look into what my mother described. She asked if I knew what the nurse looked like, or when it happened, but my mother’s sense of time has gotten very bad, and she only gave a description of things that bothered her for some reason. The hat the nurse was wearing, the fact that she had curls of hair hanging out from under it, behind her head, and that she was wearing a cross body “purse” (with how my mother described it, I don’t think it was a purse) that she never took off. It wasn’t much for her to go on. All I could be relatively sure of is that what my mother described would have happened after the nurse had her meeting with us, so within the past week. In the end, though, I can’t even be 100% sure of that. My mother made it sound like it was recent, but she’s done that about things that have happen days, weeks, even years ago. So who really knows.

Meanwhile, I’m getting messages, photos and video from my brother and SIL, hanging out with their grand kids. Oh, and their son and daughter in law, too. 😁 They’re having a blast! I’m glad they could make the trip out.

All in all, even with the short but rather odd visit with my mother, it’s been a good and relatively productive day. Tomorrow is expected to be cooler again, so I will use that as my excuse to get a real, honest to goodness, day of rest. I hadn’t pushed myself hard yesterday, but I still needed to get my husband to slather on the diclofenac last night. Even between that and the painkillers I took before bed, I was awakened this morning by sharp pain in my hips. Both of them. Which, strangely, lessened as soon as I was up and moving around.

I’m really looking forward to my appointment at the sports injury clinic on Monday!

Hopefully, I won’t have to deal with it again, tomorrow morning!

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

Happy Easter – complete with “hate mail”

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

A happy and blessed Easter to you all!

We got to enjoy our basket contents as our traditional Easter brunch, and it was quite lovely.

Not everyone is in a joyful mood, though. I found this in my pending comments today.

No, I am not “approving” it.

Bogna
11h ago

Your pictures say “view on Instagram” so there is nothing to view. This blog is crap

For those who have been following my image heavy blog for a while, you already know this, but for those newer to this blog, I have a bit of an issue.

I have an old WordPress plan that is no longer available. It gives me my domain name and 15G of storage space. I am currently at 98.9% full.

I could upgrade my account to a business plan, which would give me 50G of storage space and a whole lot of bells and whistles I don’t want or need, costing more than twice what I’m paying per year now. Or I could buy – well, rent would be the more accurate term – 50G of storage space and be paying even more than the cost of a business plan, on top off how much my current grandfathered plan costs per year. None of which is in budget.

I’ve looked at a lot of places where I could store image files with the intention of embedding them here, but none of them have worked out for one reason or another. The only one that has worked out consistently is to post things to Instagram, then embed them into my posts, the same way I can embed videos. The problem with that is, sometimes the images/video don’t load and people have to click on the space to go to Instagram to view them. From what I understand, though, if you don’t have an Instagram account, you can’t actually see them. I could be wrong on that. Of course, if someone has blocked me on Instagram or something like that, they won’t be able to see it. Nor would I be able to see anything of theirs.

The thing is, this is a function of Instagram. Something I have no control over. This is something that happens on the viewer’s end. Everything is working just fine at my end, and I have no way of knowing when or if it will work for any particular viewer at any given time. Most people know how these things work well enough to get it.

My angry visitor here doesn’t seem to understand that and has declared my blog “crap”, simply because they apparently can’t click to view on Instagram. I have no idea why they can’t view the images on my blog through whatever device or OS they are using. Apparently, they aren’t capable of clicking or tapping on the “view on Instagram” link that shows, instead.

So they chose to diss my blog, instead.

They have only succeeded in giving me a good laugh.

Happy Easter, Bogna! I hope you have a better rest of your day.

The Re-Farmer

Ready for tomorrow

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

My daughters took care of getting our not-quite-traditional Polish Easter basket ready for blessing, to be enjoyed tomorrow morning.

This year’s eggs are straight pickled eggs; soy sauce, turmeric and beet juice brines. The olives stuffed with feta are in a dish of my mother’s from when we packed up her apartment that now lives here. The Royal Albert Lavender Rose patterned China plate under the herb and garlic Boursin cheese is part of a set we inherited from my late MIL. In the pinch pots is butter, salt, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard and horseradish paste. The loaf is artisan flax seed baked at the grocery store in town, and the garlic sausage is from the general store in our little hamlet, made locally.

I’m honestly stunned by how bright yellow the turmeric eggs are. They looked so pale while still in the jar!

We do have some small chocolate eggs to include, but they are “naked” and my daughter didn’t want them picking up moisture and food smells, so they will wait.

This is the first year I was not able to assemble any part of the basket myself, due to not feeling well.

I think the girls put together a very lovely basket! They’ve been a great help to me today.

The Re-Farmer

A gorgeous day

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

It’s coming up on evening as I write this, and we still haven’t reached our high of the day – anywhere from 5-7C/41-45F depending on which app I look at.

When I headed out to do the morning cat feeding, I didn’t even bother wearing a coat.

One of things we find in the winter is tunnels dug into the piled up snow. Today, I found two new ones – and evidence to show what has been making them!

The first photo is of the biggest tunnel. It’s hard to see, but to the left of the opening there is the distinctive paw print of a raccoon. Both raccoons and skunks are out now, and I’m seeing them in the sun room, stealing kibble!

The next three photos are of one tunnel with two openings.

I wonder if they nap in them or something?

After doing my morning routine, I was basically knackered. I am feeling both better and worse today. Better in some ways, but worse in a new pain way. I can’t stand for very long. It’s better while I’m moving, for a little while, at least.

So the girls have been taking over for me for the most part. I did go out again to do the evening cat feeding, and even tried to clear more snow away from around the well cap, were the bigger of those snow tunnels was.

The cats are really enjoying the warmer weather!

This gorgeous tuxedo is a very feral male. He’ll go into the sun room sometimes to eat, or to assert dominance over other males, but will not allow a human to come anywhere near him. Which is the only reason he didn’t run away as soon as I walked back into the sun room. He and Hypotenose where having words.

It was so nice out, I found excuses to stay outside longer. Did a bit more clearing of snow from around the well cap, though I probably shouldn’t have. I hate not being able to do work while the conditions are good.

The cats are just loving the warm.

The fluffy tabby glaring at me on the right is Furriosa. She has been making strange a lot more often of late. Which is unfortunate, as we want her to get used to being handled as much as possible before we take her in to the city for vetting and fostering and eventual adoption. When the time comes, I think we’ll have to close up the isolation shelter with the littles inside for the night, to make it easier to get them into carriers the next day. Sir Robin and Grommet will be easy to get, as will Domino and Blot. Bug has even been more ansty lately, and when I try to pet Furriosa in the isolation shelter, she runs out now. I think the warmer weather has something to do with it. They have more energy to run around!

Tomorrow is Easter, and it’s going to be a quiet one at home. I’m not up to driving to my mother’s to visit her and deliver a basket, as I’d planned, but I will be phoning her instead. All the remaining Easter preparations will be on the girls. Monday is our 38th anniversary, but we won’t be doing anything special this year. Tuesday, I bring the truck in to get checked out to find out why I’m losing oil again. Hopefully, the truck will not have anything major going on, and I will be feeling well enough to make the trip to my mothers – and the city trip to deliver cats! – later in the week.

Right now, I’m torn between wanting to go back outside and enjoying the day, or crawling into bed and curling up into a ball until tomorrow.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Finally got some stuff in and… you’ve got to be kidding me.

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Okay. Where do I start with today!

Well, first up, how about some cuteness?

As I was getting my coat to go feed the outside cats, I spotted movement in the distance. I had to zoom in quite a bit to get these shots, so they’re not the best.

Two white tail deer, beyond the outer yard, at the far side of the barn. Soon after, I saw one of them making its way through the outer yard to the driveway, heading for the gate. The deer are very, very active this time of year, and the population looks to be quite high this spring! I haven’t seen so many since we stopped feeding them outside the living room window.

After I did the outside cats’ food and water, I tried for a head count. I think I counted 24 in total. Possibly 25?

Adam was on the cat house roof, where she prefers to eat, and she enthusiastically allowed me to pet her. I was able to feel around her belly. She does not feel pregnant, and I don’t feel any active nips. Given how early I saw she’d gone into heat and the boys going after her, it’s entirely possible she’s had a litter and lost it. I am seeing the other feral females – Slick, Sprout and the white and grey we haven’t named – show up just long enough to eat, and then they disappear.

I managed to get a picture of this beauty, though.

Fluffy is so adorably fluffy!!

I’m glad we were able to catch her and get her spayed, because she very rarely allows me to touch her. Once I do, she stops and enjoys the pets, but otherwise, she just runs away.

Once the outside stuff was done, I headed out. My first stop was to the post office, then I planned to go to the feed store in my mother’s town, then visit her.

I had asked the owner of the general store if their feed supplier also carried cat food. She looked up their list and they did. That was a while ago, so when I came in to get the mail, I looked through their feed section and saw they had three 18kg (39.68lbs) bags of cat kibble! They were only $45, too. With the other brands we’ve been getting, they are in the $50-$55 range.

We’ve never had this brand before, so I got only one, to try it out. If the cats like it, it would make things much easier to pick them up in our own little hamlet than having to drive to the towns with feed stores. The only thing is that I would have to change how I budget it. Right now, I put the budgeted amount onto a credit card, so that when I buy them I get my cashback or Canadian Tire dollars. The general store doesn’t take credit cards, though. Just cash and debit. So if I’m going to be buying the big bags there more often, I have to make sure NOT to transfer the funds to a credit card.

So after I picked up our mail, I got the one bag of kibble – then picked up a couple of sausages for the Easter baskets. Something else that was on my list for the shopping I planned to do after visiting my mother.

Since I got the test bag of kibble, I skipped the feed store and went straight to my mother’s.

She was in her favourite armchair in the common room when I got there. She was pleasantly surprised to see me, which was nice for a change.

It was a pretty quiet visit. There wasn’t a lot new going on. My mother immediately started complaining, of course, but not as … energetically, shall we say, as usual. Her health isn’t good. She needs sleep. She needs a private room. (I don’t disagree!) Her room mate is terrible. (I’m sure her room mate thinks the same of my mother!) The regular doctor never comes to see her. The other doctors are from the city come in just for a day. I reminded her that she would need to make an appointment for the doctor to actually see her as a patient; otherwise, he’s just doing his rounds before going to his regular patient appointments at the clinic. To which she complained that it’s just about moneymoneymoney. Apparently, doctors shouldn’t get paid? I’m not quite sure what she’s getting at when she says that, but she says it quite often.

Hopefully, she won’t be here for very long, but there’s just no way to know when a bed will open up at the nursing home she wants to be in.

I remembered to ask if our vandal had shown up again, after his big act with his wife pushing him in with a borrowed wheelchair, then storming out when she refused to pay for his funeral. She said no, he hasn’t. I was not surprised. I told her, I knew there was a reason he was visiting so often. He wanted something from her. Now we know what it was. She started going on about how he’s wealthy, he has his farm. I told her, that’s not cash in the bank. He would have to sell it. Her response was, what else is he going to do with it? His wife isn’t going to farm it, and they have no kids. I told her, he doesn’t have to. He’s got so many vehicles and equipment scattered all over his property. Stuff he can’t use anymore. He could sell just a couple of things and more than cover the cost of his own funeral. That reminded her of the thousands of dollars she’d given him for the huge garage he had built to store his equipment in. All I know is, his vehicles and equipment are still all scattered all over his yard, fully visible from the road as I drive by, except for the Bobcat he stole from my mother, so who knows what all he’s got stored in there. My mother got the point, though; there is no reason for him to be going to her for money to pay for his own funeral. Which could be years from now, for all I know, based on how he appears the few times I’ve seen him since his diagnosis.

Overall, it was a good and relaxed visit. I stayed until her lunch tray was brought over – a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup and crackers, a pickled blend of legumes I recognize from Costco that is quite good, and canned fruit for desert. Her insulated tea cup was just hot water – at her request – to mix in with the glass of milk. One of her favourite things to drink. I stayed long enough to help her get set up and everything was in reach before saying my goodbyes.

From there, it was off to our regular local grocery store – and extra drive, but the difference in prices between that town and my mother’s made it worth it.

Once there, I got the last few things for the Easter baskets, including an extra flat of eggs. I’d asked my daughters to hard boil some eggs for me to start pickling after I got home. They ended up doing a flat and a half – roughly 45 eggs. The extras and the uglies would be used for egg salad. I got a paska for my mother, though it’s huge for a one person basket. Since she no longer has her own kitchen or utensils, my plan is to have everything for her basket all cut up and ready to eat without needing anything else. Plus, she could share the contents, if she finds it too much. We aren’t fans of paska ourselves, so I got a lovely fresh flax seed loaf for our own basket.

The shopping done, my only planned outing over the next while is to visit my mother and bring her the basket on either Saturday or Sunday.

I’m thinking Saturday.

There’s a reason for that.

The truck.

The truck has been running well. The stock up shopping trips have been fine. I have, of course, still been constantly checking the gauges. With the troubles we’ve been having for the past couple of years, I just can’t help myself.

Which is why I noticed something had changed.

The oil pressure gauge.

When we had the leaking seal replaced again, on warranty, and the oil sensor replaced, I got an oil change done at the same time. According to the mileage, we have a couple thousand kilometers before it needs to be changed again – which is about a month’s worth of driving, in the summer. Two months, in the winter.

After all that, the pressure gauge was right back where it was supposed to be and staying within a typical range.

As we were coming home from the Costco trip, though, it started to read on the low side of normal. Technically still okay, but at one point, it was pretty much on the line for low pressure.

It was reading normal again when I started out today, but when I got to the grocery store from my mother’s, the gauge had dropped down to the line again.

While I was on my way home, I kept checking it, and sure enough, it kept slowly dropping. As I was pulling into our driveway, it was touching the line again.

*sigh*

One thing I can say, though; the warranty differential is working fine. The 2 wheel and 4 wheel drive setting has been on auto, and it has had no problem kicking into 4 wheel drive as needed. Today got so warm, the hard packed snow under the tire tracks in our driveway started to soften and the truck starting to sink as I was driving, but I was able to get through with no problem! No getting stuck in our own driveway again!

We’ve been parking the truck in the yard for the past while, since my brother’s truck was half in our garage (as far as it could go without hitting the top of the door frame). My brother had phoned this morning and he suggested I just back it up into the lane towards the barn and leave it there, so we could park our own truck in the garage. So after the shopping was unloaded and I did an early feeding of the outside cats (they like the new kibble!), I moved his truck out.

His truck was having issues with sinking through the formerly hard packed snow, but it got through fine as well.

Driving our own truck into the garage, the oil gauge didn’t have a chance to drop like it did while driving, but it also never got to where it normally is.

The boxes for our chicken coop are still stored at the far end of the garage, so we can’t pull all the way in. Not a problem, since it means I had space to get out the step stool and check the oil levels.

It was low.

I had one last bottle of oil left, 3/4 full, and used that. The level seemed okay after that, but I’m never confident in what I’m seeing on the dip stick. The colour of the oil and the colour of the dip stick is pretty much the same, and the metal is always shiny, even after wiping it clean.

*sigh*

I made a point of checking, and there is no sign of an oil leak, but then I’ve never seen evidence of an oil leak even when it turned out to be leaking really badly, because of where the leak was. The only times I thought I did, it turned out to be from the differential, not engine oil.

Once I was settled inside, I called the garage. The owner answered. I made sure to first let him know that the warranty differential replacement has been doing fine, then explained about the oil pressure and being low on oil again. I mentioned, I’ve got a lot of driving to do in the next while!

He asked me if I could come in on Tuesday afternoon, so they can check it out. They are closed tomorrow and on Easter Monday, of course, so I was very happy that he could book me in so quickly.

For now, it should be fine for me to drive to my mother’s. I’ll do it on Saturday, when things are open, so I can pick up some extra oil to keep in the truck, now that I’ve just used the last of my stash.

This is getting so insane. I’ve either got another leak somewhere, or the truck is simply burning a lot of oil. Which I would expect to see evidence of in my exhaust, and I haven’t.

I just don’t get it.

I am so tired of vehicle troubles!

I can’t even say it’s been this particular truck, since the last two vehicles we’ve owned have also had weird problems. As my daughter told me during our Costco shop, and I was commenting about my own paranoia about the truck; with all the stuff that’s been going on, I have reason to be!!

Hopefully, it’s something minor that they can find and fix easily and quickly.

Hopefully.

On a completely different note, once I had my appointment made, I got to check out what I got in the mail.

My new soil thermometer has arrived.

The padded envelope had been opened, and the box it was in was crushed. That would have been customs. At least the thermometer itself was not damaged!

Once things thaw out, I want to use it in various beds to see how different the soil temperature is in, say, the high raised bed compared to the low raised beds. It might help explain why I had issues with my beans, melons, tomatoes and squash last summer.

That all settled, the last goal of the day was to make three different types of brine to pickle eggs in, and start peeling the eggs that were hard boiled last night. I made beet, soy and turmeric brines, using the simplest recipes I could find online, so I had three little pots going at once. Then my younger daughter and I started peeling eggs.

It was a disaster.

The shells just did not want to separate from the eggs!

Now, it we were just making egg salad, I wouldn’t have cared, but I was after the most perfect eggs to brine and use in our Easter baskets, and we just weren’t getting any at all. After about a dozen eggs, I called a stop to trying.

Thankfully, I got a extra flat of eggs at the grocery store today.

The ugly eggs didn’t go to waste, though; they got eaten pretty much immediately. 😄

Meanwhile, I started on another batch to hard boil, using tips I’ve tried in the past, all combined.

It worked.

First, fill the pot with water and generous amount of baking soda, then bring it to a boil. The eggs were brought out of the fridge to warm up. Room temperature would have been ideal, but I at least didn’t want to have cold shells cracking on contact with boiling water.

Once the water was boiling, I used a wire basket type scoop – I don’t know the name of it – to lower the eggs into the boiling water in batched. I got 24 eggs into the pot. One did crack, but nothing leaked out of it.

I set the timer for 10 minutes, but it took a while for the water to go from a simmer to a full boil again, so it was really more like 7 minutes at a boil. When the time went off, I shut off the heat, but didn’t take them out right away, just in case. Then I transferred them to a bowl of cold water and left them there for another 10 minutes.

Every single egg peeled perfectly.

All 24 eggs.

Perfect. Including the one that cracked!

I was hoping to just have 6 eggs per jar or brine, but I was able to do 8 in each!

Gotta make sure to pass on the method to the girls. My younger daughter was pretty upset that the first batch wouldn’t peel and felt she had done something wrong. It’s not a problem, though. We’ll just have lots of eggs ready for snacking!

Tomorrow, we need to dig out a couple of baskets from storage, and I need to figure out how to do my mother’s basket, if I’m going to have everything pre-cut up for her. Normally, the baskets would get blessed on Saturday, then enjoyed on Easter morning, but I have not been able to find any times for basket blessing. I know it’s being done; just not which church or what time. For quite a few years now, we’ve just blessed them ourselves. I’ll take the chance to visit my mother on Saturday with her basket and get a bit of a visit in.

Then not go anywhere again until it’s time to take the truck in to the garage to get checked!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Happy New Year!

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Tonight, we say good by to 2025, and hello to 2026.

Personally, we’re going to huddle down with lots of finger foods, and a Columbo marathon. That’s about as exciting as I’m wanting to be, these days!

I hope you have a wonderful time celebrating, and may 2026 be a year of peace, prosperity and good health for you and your loved ones!

From The Re-Farmer family to yours

Merry Christmas (plus an update)

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Wishing you all a joyous Christmas.

Image generated by WP’s AI – which really messed up the hands, as usual!!! Not sure what’s going on with that donkey and sheep on the left, either. 😂

Blessings to you and your loved ones, this glorious day!

Today, I headed over to visit my mother in the hospital earlier than planned, as we have predictions for “snow showers” this evening. I stayed until she was served her lunch – she got her turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy that she likes so much. When I was a kid, we never did turkey, unless we happened to raised some ourselves that year, so this is a preference she picked up (or finally got to indulge) some time after all us kids were grown and gone.

My mother is looking so much better. Yes, she is still struggling with pain and mobility, but her overall appearance and even mood are great. She honestly looks happier now that she’s in the hospital than I think I’ve seen her in years!

She has commented more than a few times on how good the hospital food is. She doesn’t have any dietary restrictions, and the meals I’ve seen look awesome. What I’m also appreciating is that she is no longer saying things like she needs to stop eating, she eats too much, because she’s too fat (I don’t remember my mother ever being thin). She has also stopped blaming her food, especially meat, for any problems she has had, like the mystery pain in her sternum (not related to her heartburn), or not being able to breathe at night, or headaches or [insert malady of the day here]/ In fact, now that she’s sleeping in a hospital bed that is set at an incline, I haven’t heard her complaining about her breathing, either. From what I’m seeing, she is getting an excellent ratio of protein in her meals; far more than she ate on her own, and the meals themselves are larger than what Meals on Wheels had, which she would say were soooo much food.

They are weighing her regularly, as a way to monitor how much fluids they’ve drained from her edema. She told me what she weighted today, and comments on how it was too much. I told her, this is how they keep track of how much fluids they’ve drained from her with her treatment, so she has probably lost quite a bit of weight, just in the time she’s been in the hospital. Plus, she’s 94 years old. Who cares? Seriously. If all the scare mongers were right when it comes to being fat, she should have died decades ago. Instead, she’s ridiculously healthy, as far as her vitals show. So much so, it’s almost a problem, because then the doctors just want to send her home, when she has mobility and the beginnings of cognitive issues that really should prevent that.

Thankfully, that does not seem to be the plan now. We have yet to see or talk to a doctor, and my mother says she’s seen a doctor only twice since she’s been admitted, and none of the nursing staff we talk to know anything. All they can tell us is, she’s staying for now. There are no discharge plans that they can see. I know I’ve stressed, every time I call and ask about it, that she cannot live independently anymore. I’ve even added that none of us can take her in; I have a disabled husband, and my siblings do not live in accessible housing. Plus, my sister (the oldest of us) is almost 70, so we’re not exactly spring chickens ourselves! Ha! When talking to one of the nurses one time and I mentioned that my sister (who has the closest thing to accessible housing, for at least part of her home) is almost 70, the nurse admitted she was shocked. She said she thought my mother was in her 70’s, so how could she have a daughter that was almost 70?

I told her I have plans to go to her place soon (probably tomorrow, if the roads are good) to empty our her fridge. There are a few things she asked me to bring to her as well. She told me they haven’t been giving her the special vitamin for her wet macular degeneration, so on the way out I talked to today’s nurse about it. I couldn’t remember the name of it – it’s not normally a prescription, but something you can buy off the shelf. My mother got a prescription for it specifically so they could be included in her bubble packs. He said he would look into it.

He phoned me at home some time later and asked more questions about it. Since I was at my computer, we were able to confirm the name of it. He asked me to bring her bubble packs so they could use what she has while they got authorization from their pharmacy to include it with her other meds. They should have had it on their med list for her, but I think the fact that it’s a supplement, not a prescription medication, it fell through the cracks.

My mother also admired the hat I crocheted for myself using the blanket yarn my daughter got me. She asked if I could make one for her, too! Something she can wear at night, because she gets so cold. My brother and SIL had brought her an extra blanket and slipper socks, but her head still gets cold.

So that is a project for me tonight. A simple hat worked up quickly, and I have enough of the blanket yarn left to make one.

Meanwhile, as I write this, my daughters are taking care of roasting the turkey and making our Christmas supper. Since I headed out when I did, everything got shifted around.

All in all, it’s been a very quiet Christmas, which we are quite happy with. When we lived in this province before, and my MIL was still with us, we would do Réveillon on Christmas Eve at my in-laws, Christmas day at my parents, then another big feast on Boxing day with my BIL’s family. As great as it was, we’re more than content to have our quiet Christmases at home. Or course, my husband can’t handle the trip to the city to see his family for any celebrations, anymore, either. Perhaps, one of these year’s, we’ll be up to hosting such a celebration, but my FIL isn’t very mobile, either, and probably wouldn’t be able to make it out here anymore.

The good thing is, with modern technology, we can still be “with” our family members on this happy day.